Hypertension and happiness across nations \ud
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By David G. Blanchflower and Andrew J. Oswald

Abstract

In surveys of well-being, countries such as Denmark and the Netherlands emerge as particularly happy while nations like Germany and Italy report lower levels of happiness. But are these kinds of findings credible? This paper provides some evidence that the answer is yes. Using data on 16 countries, it shows that happier nations report systematically lower levels of hypertension. As well as potentially validating the differences in measured happiness across nations, this suggests that blood-pressure readings might be valuable as part of a national well-being index. A new ranking of European nations’ GHQ-N6 mental health scores is also given.\ud
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(2003). Evidence for the independence of positive and negative well-being: Implications for quality of life assessment.

(1999). Exceptions to this are in Eurobarometer #56.1 noted above which is included in the Eurotrends file and in Eurobarometer #52.1 (Modern Biotechnology, Quality of Life and Consumer’s access to Justice, November-December,